Michael Sanft, the attorney for the man on trial for allegedly orchestrating the murder of Tupac Shakur, finds himself in a position out of a \u201cLaw and Order\u201d episode.<\/p>\n
He must convince a jury to ignore incriminating statements his client made. With every word he speaks, Sanft argues that Duane Davis is a liar who cannot be trusted.<\/p>\n
It started during opening arguments, when Sanft flashed the word \u201cbulls\u2014\u201d on the screen for jurors, referring not to the prosecutors but to Davis himself. And it will continue as the Las Vegas trial comes to a close Monday.<\/p>\n
Legal experts call it a novel tactic, but perhaps the best shot at getting the jurors to ignore numerous statements in police interviews and a documentary they heard in Davis\u2019 own words.<\/p>\n
There is actually a term of art for this kind of defense challenge: puffing, or claiming a criminal case is based on the client\u2019s exaggerations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen your client submits to two police interviews and publishes a book making damaging admissions, he is either a liar or guilty; pick your poison,\u201d said Glen Jonas, a defense attorney for high-profile clients. \u201cIt is about establishing reasonable doubt with what you have to work with within the confines of the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPuffing\u201d can be an effective tool when the prosecution\u2019s case relies heavily on the defendant\u2019s words rather than clear physical evidence or scientific evidence, Jonas said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very unusual for a defense attorney to argue that their client is a liar,\u201d said Lou Shapiro, a Los Angeles defense attorney. \u201cBut sometimes the facts and circumstances call for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davis has been the star witness for Nevada prosecutors, who devoted large portions of their case to simply recounting things the murder suspect has said about the 1996 killing of the rap star during a drive-by shooting just off the Las Vegas Strip.<\/p>\n
Davis has spoken extensively about his role in the case, including in interviews with Los Angeles police and the media, in a 2019 tell-all book and during several bragging interviews done to promote the publication.<\/p>\n
In his memoir \u201cCompton Street Legend,\u201d Davis said he and his crew were in Vegas with plans to watch Mike Tyson fight Bruce Seldon. They learned that Davis\u2019 nephew Orlando \u201cBaby Lane\u201d Anderson had been jumped by members of Marion \u201cSuge\u201d Knight\u2019s Death Row Records camp while walking in the lobby of the MGM Grand.<\/p>\n
Davis said he and his crew set out in search of Knight and Shakur. Davis wrote in the book that he tossed the gun he\u2019d been given into the back seat of the white Cadillac in which Anderson and Deandrae \u201cDre\u201d Smith sat. They spotted the Death Row caravan stopped at a red light, with Shakur waving to fans while hanging out of the BMW window.<\/p>\n
\u201cTupac made an erratic move and began to reach down beneath the seat … and that\u2019s when the fireworks started. One of my guys from the back seat grabbed the Glock and started bustin\u2019 back,\u201d Davis wrote.<\/p>\n
Jurors heard more than eight hours of interviews, including a 2008 LAPD federal task force recording. In them, Davis bragged about being in the Cadillac and said that, because he was on the far side as the front passenger, he handed the .40-caliber Glock to Anderson and Smith in the back seat as Terrence \u201cBubble Up\u201d Brown drove. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, Orlando shot him across Dre?\u201d an LAPD detective asked Davis.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe leaned over on the window; he rolled down the window, popped,\u201d Davis answered, saying he looked Knight in the eye as Shakur scrambled into the back seat.<\/p>\n
The motive, he said, was revenge for the beatdown on his nephew at MGM. He isn\u2019t believed to be the trigger man, but under Nevada law, helping to commit a murder is enough, prosecutors say.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen a case where the prosecution wants to build up the defendant while the defense is trying to tear him down,\u2019 said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor. \u201cThe prosecution is arguing that Davis was the shot caller and mastermind of a criminal enterprise. The defense is arguing that Davis was a lying BSer who is \u2018full of crap.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The prosecution rested its case after 25 witnesses and several days of playing recordings. The defense called three witnesses, focusing on two main strategies. <\/p>\n
One is to argue Davis was bragging to make himself seem important and cannot be believed. Davis has been speaking out about the killing for nearly two decades.<\/p>\n
He broke his silence in 2008, when an LAPD federal task force investigating the 1997 murder in L.A. of Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, questioned him, informing him they had him selling enough PCP to put him away for life along with some of his relatives. They let him do a proffer as a means to a lighter sentence as they pursued a racketeering case against the rap enterprises.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Sanft got a retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer to testify that he interviewed Davis in 2009 after the LAPD arranged a meeting, and prosecutors opted not to charge him.<\/p>\n
It was only in 2023 that Las Vegas prosecutors filed murder charges against him. <\/p>\n
The second defense strategy is to question what other evidence the prosecution actually has besides Davis\u2019 words.<\/p>\n
Sanft called a retired Las Vegas Metro homicide detective to acknowledge there was no DNA, no forensics or eyewitness accounts, and he never got anyone else to say Davis was in the Cadillac besides Davis himself.<\/p>\n
In Nevada, jurors can ask questions, and so the defense closed on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWere you able to verify and confirm Mr. Davis was actually in the white Cadillac the night of Tupac\u2019s murder?\u201d a juror asked. <\/p>\n
Retired Det. Dan Long replied, \u201cBy Mr. Davis telling me that he was in the white Cadillac on the night of the murder and that the shooting came from that same white Cadillac.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge asked if Sanft had a follow-up question, and he asked, \u201cAre there no actual facts outside what Mr. Davis told you?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d the detective replied.<\/p>\n
Rahmani said this line of inquiry could bear fruit with the jury. He noted the prosecution hasn\u2019t been able to corroborate Davis\u2019 confessions with independent evidence \u2014 and the lone survivor in the two cars, then-Death Row records boss Knight, who was driving the BMW and seated next to Shakur, isn\u2019t testifying.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is tough to prosecute a 30-year-old cold case based almost entirely on the defendant\u2019s confession,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In the end, it might come down to how much the jury believes Davis before he became a murder defendant.<\/p>\n
\u201cNormally a defense lawyer does not want to tell a jury that his own client is a liar and destroy the client\u2019s credibility. But in the Duane Davis case,\u201d that might be the best strategy,\u201d said Dmitry Gorin, a former Los Angeles County prosecutor.<\/p>\n
If jurors are not willing to convict on Davis\u2019 words alone, then the physical evidence \u2014 or lack of it \u2014 will be key.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt needs one juror to vote not guilty to have a hung jury.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Sanft, the attorney for the man on trial for allegedly orchestrating the murder of Tupac Shakur, finds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[258541,741,258540,99776,8852,93,61,60,248900,258545,252485,21556,278,258542,143572,173277,258543,258544,22543],"class_list":["post-610145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-back-seat","tag-client","tag-criminal-case","tag-davis","tag-defense","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-juror","tag-liar","tag-michael-sanft","tag-murder","tag-music","tag-police-interview","tag-prosecution","tag-prosecutor","tag-shakur","tag-white-cadillac","tag-word"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}